CPJ condemns Israeli security for humiliating screening

New York, January 14, 2011--The Committee to Protect
Journalists condemns the humiliating treatment of several journalists by security
personnel assigned to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. CPJ calls on
the prime minister to ensure that similar episodes are avoided in the future.

On Tuesday, journalists arrived at the David Citadel Hotel
in Jerusalem to cover an annual meeting of the Israeli prime minister with
representatives of the foreign press, according to a statement released by
Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera's Jerusalem bureau received the invitation several days
in advance and, as required, sent the names of reporters and crew members who would
be transmitting live coverage of the conference. Al-Jazeera has been taking
part in the event for seven years, according to the station.

Al-Jazeera said its crew, consisting of multiple reporters
and two cameramen, arrived early after taking into consideration the complications
of security inspections. Despite being one of the first teams at the hotel,
Al-Jazeera staffers were stopped and made to wait for two and a half hours
while other foreign journalists were allowed to enter. Al-Jazeera said its
journalists had to undergo a humiliating physical examination. Najwa Simri,
Al-Jazeera news producer, endured a "thorough, painstaking and physical
security screening even though Simri had told the guard that she is pregnant,"
Al-Jazeera's statement said. The station said a female guard ordered Simri to remove
her bra; when Simri refused, she was informed that she would be denied entry.
Simri then had to wait 15 minutes until her clothes were returned so she could leave.

Other journalists, including a Wall Street Journal reporter, were strip-searched and
forced to take off their pants, according to a statement
released by the Foreign Press Association in Israel, or FPA. Walid Al-Omary,
Al-Jazeera's bureau chief, had to undergo a similar, humiliating inspection,
according to Al-Jazeera. Several members of the press corps walked out of the
event.

Al-Omary said in a statement that Al-Jazeera reporters and
other Arab journalists were made to stand in a line separate from their Israeli
and foreign colleagues. Al-Jazeera demanded that "we be treated equally and not
be discriminated against because we are Arab journalists or working with
Al-Jazeera's team."

In a statement, the FPA asked the prime minister's office
"for assurances that this will not happen again or we will respectfully decline
further invitation." The Jerusalem Postreported
that the director of Israel's government press office, Oren Helman, wrote in a
letter to the FPA that he "would like to express regret that journalists left
the [government press office] annual cocktail reception feeling that they were
treated in an unbecoming manner by security. Obviously, we do not invite
journalists to an event in order to offend them."

"The treatment our colleagues were subjected to during an invitation-only
media event at a five-star hotel is unspeakable," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem,
CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "We call on the prime minister's
office to ensure that such treatment is never repeated."